About Joining Hearts
When Joining Hearts held its first main event in 1987, there was little known about HIV/AIDS. The world began to recognize its grave importance, and so our founders stepped up to start helping people living with HIV/AIDS in Atlanta. And now, 34 years later, the metro Atlanta community is once again in an HIV/AIDS crisis. While other cities in the country are seeing virtually no new HIV infections, Atlanta is seeing new infections at numbers we haven’t seen since the 1980’s.
Everyday there are a wide range of organizations working to stop the spread of HIV throughout Atlanta. We can’t support them without your continued support. It is just as important today as it was 34 years ago to support this cause; to support the local organizations and people that are fighting to stop the spread of the HIV virus and helping people who are living with the disease.
Since 1987, Joining Hearts has donated more than $2.7 million to our beneficiaries.
Our Mission
The mission of Joining Hearts is to raise awareness and funds to support prevention, care, and housing assistance to those impacted by HIV/AIDS in Atlanta.
History: Where it All Began
Joining Hearts was started in 1987 by a group of friends who wanted to do their part to help a friend impacted by HIV/AIDS who needed financial assistance to stay in his home. This group of friends decided to throw an event to raise funds to provide support for him to stay in his home.
The friends decided to make this an annual event with all the proceeds going to local organizations with a focus on helping people living with HIV/AIDS. This formed what is called now today as the Host Committee of Joining Hearts.
As needs and medical advances evolved, Joining Hearts had to do the same and expanded to add additional events to answer the call to action to make a bigger impact in Atlanta. In year 30, this led to a direct change in our focus by expanding our mission to support care and provision in addition to housing in which we were formed.
Board of Directors
Jerry Henderson
President
president@joininghearts.org
Jonathan Foulk
Vice President
vicepresident@joininghearts.org
Cory Jobe
Director of Finance & Volunteers
finance@joininghearts.org
volunteers@joininghearts.org
David Elsea
Director of Communications & Events
communications@joininghearts.org
events@joininghearts.org
Michael Boggan
Director of Patrons & Hosts
patrons@joininghearts.org
hosts@joininghearts.org
Rosalyn Jordan
Director of Marketing
marketing@joininghearts.org
2022 Sponsors
Gold Sponsor
Patrons
Heart of Diamond: $5,000+
- Scott Evers & Al Besse
Heart of Gold: $3,000+
- Gregg Chandler
- Lewis Hamner & Tommy Brendiar
- William Mandarino
- John Richardson
- Andy Werts
Four Heart Patron: $1,950+
Three Heart Patron: $950+
- Patrick Bodin
- Robert Chubb & Steven Rodriguez
- Vincent Cirillo & Alex Salazar
- Glen Reed, Jason Oergel, & John Dolan
- James Venable
- Michael Zenner & Ron Rodriguez
- Douglas Sleezer
Two Heart Patron: $650+
- Danny Bergeron & Hugo Cruz
- Richard Blackburn & Chris New
- Jeff Brewer
- Chris Burell & Sean Selman
- Eric Bymaster
- Tom Callaway
- Phillip Cannon
- Matthew Doyle & Richard Loew
- Newton Galloway & Gerard Lozano
- Darrell Gingrich
- Evan Glover & Mark Butt
- Peter Gourdin & Irvin Alvarenga
- John Hackett & Andrew Ridge
- Scott Hayes & Scott Porter
- Dan Heagney & Brandon Nicholas
- Todd Hill & Kevin Wysner
- Thomas Hogshead
- David Holland & Demetre Daskalakis
- Scott Horton & Oriel Graham
- Gary Iskol & Santi Thousavath
- Christopher Krebs & Steve Messner
- Rich Lacy
- Paul Lawrence & David Malo
- Edgard Lequerique
- Kerry Loftis
- David Moehring & Miles Horton
- Jeremy Palmer & Nicolas Scheuer
- Matt Parkey
- Reed Pitre
- William Porter
- Von Rowe
- Roger & Bill Rutkowski
- Philip Schintzius & Julius Brown
- Reggie Speegle & Rik Ludel
- John Stanton & Andrew Zwig
- Raleigh Terry & Joshua Johnson
- Robb Thomas & Marcos Franco
- Shaka Walker
- Kevin Workman & Don Hemrick
One Heart Patrons: $350+
- Thomas Barnette
- Roberty Brady
- Ryan Budd
- Sean Cox
- Trippe Davis
- Helmut Domagalski
- Bruce Erwin
- Craig Fisk
- Mark Fowler
- Robert Gaul
- Warren Gump
- Brett Hill
- Paul Holland
- Mike Horton
- Erick Johnson
- Wes Kirkbride
- Mark Lenkiewicz
- Sergio Orlando
- Tony Patterson
- James Phelps
- Edward Pitts
- Chris Privette
- Tim Ratliff
- Jon Santos
- Brad Smith
- Kevin St. Clair
- Justin Strickland
- Ronald Trible
- Michael Wheeler
Honorary Patrons
Honorary Patrons are people who have gone above and beyond for Joining Hearts over the years. They have donated time, money and/or guidance to help Joining Hearts become what it is today. We can’t do what we do without them:
- John Baird
- Erin Bakermans
- Drew Barton
- Wes Berry
- Walt Bilinski
- Tommy Brendiar
- Jeff Brewer
- Tim Burns
- Bart Clennon
- Alan Collins
- Rhonda Creekmore
- Tina Cunningham
- Travis Denison
- Ed Doolittle
- Mike Ertle
- Ken Exum
- Charlie Frew
- Joe Greene
- Ben Hadsock
- Chip Hamner
- Keith Hand
- Kevin Jerome
- Kevin Kelly
- Jeremiah Lawson
- Dan Lax
- Billy Ledford
- Mark Lenkiewicz
- Kerry Loftis
- Steve MacNeil
- Patrick McCulley
- Mandy Murray
- Mike Pope
- Philip Rafshoon
- Dan Rauzi
- Barbara Roberts
- Jon Santos
- Doug Sleezer
- Brian Stanton
- Mack Turner
- Michael Vorndran
- Greg Whitmire
Host Committee
- Michael Boggan*
- David Elsea*
- Jonathan Foulk*
- Clay Hartzog
- Jerry Henderson*
- Cory Jobe*
- Rosalyn Jordan*
- Jeremiah Lawson
- Michael Murphy
- David Ohmann
- Georgio Spiliopoulos
* Currently serving on the Joining Hearts Board
Partners
These are organizations that work with us to achieve our mission by helping to promote our events.